Plays: Four bowlers in six overs, Bangladesh's delayed lunch and Rubel's yorker

Four Bangladesh bowlers in six oversBangladesh Test captain Mushfiqur Rahim won the toss and again elected to field. The pitch at Mangaung Oval was predicted to offer more pace and bounce and that might have prompted Mushfiq to field first. But South Africa captain Faf du Plessis said during the toss that the Proteas would have batted first. He added that they would have taken first guard nine times out of 10 on this kind of pitch. Bangladesh needed a better start compared to day one of the first Test match, but the reality is that apart from pacer Mustafizur Rahman, none of the Tigers bowlers were upto the mark as South Africa scored runs aplenty. In the Potchefstroom Test, Mushfiq brought a spinner in just the sixth over while in the second Test, Mushfiq used the fourth bowler within only six overs of the innings. Mustafizur bowled the first and third over, paceman Subashish Roy sent down the second and fourth, pace bowler Rubel Hossain bowled the fifth while part-time seamer Soumya Sarkar sent down the sixth. So after winning the toss, using four bowlers within just six overs seemed to be a puzzling decision from captain Mushfiq. But later, the Bangladesh captain said in the post-day press conference that he had to deploy Soumya as Mustafizur incurred a slight niggle. As Mustafizur was unavailable, Mushfiq had no other option but to introduce Soumya to the pace attack.

A boundary and HE DOES IT! Congratulations @AidzMarkram who has just scored his maiden Test century! #ProteaFire pic.twitter.com/u7VHqlbi3P

— Cricket South Africa (@OfficialCSA) October 6, 2017

Delayed lunch for Bangladesh players South Africa were dominant in the morning session as both the openers - Dean Elgar and Aiden Markram - were scoring runs all over the park. To add to that, they were milking runs pretty quickly. South Africa did not lose any wicket in the first session of day one and headed for lunch on 126 runs for nought after just 29 overs. Lunch started at 12pm local time (4pm Bangladesh standard time). The estimated lunch time was 40 minutes. But when the clock ticked around 12:45pm, questions rose as to why the on-field umpires and players were not on the field. After queries, an interesting reason was found. Bangladesh was served lunch 10 minutes late from the scheduled time. The “halal” food for Bangladesh came late and thus they ate lunch 10 minutes after the scheduled time. Play resumed after lunch at 12:50pm.

WICKET! Rubel strikes after tea, Markram gone for 143. South Africa are 276/2. #SAvBAN

To follow Live Score: https://t.co/sjRLfvszI9 pic.twitter.com/r4VRSozQUR— Bangladesh Cricket (@BCBtigers) October 6, 2017

Rubel’s yorker knocks off middle stumpElecting to field first and going to tea conceding 256 in just 56 overs was not a good start for Bangladesh. The Tigers bowlers gave too many loose deliveries and South Africa batsmen struck quite a few boundaries with a healthy run-rate. But after tea, Bangladesh’s bowling improved slightly and it looked like they were bowling with a specific plan and executing it properly. Rubel and Mustafizur set up the field for bouncers and gave constant short balls to Markram and No 3 batsman Hashim Amla. The strategy seemed to work as the run-flow stopped for some time. Then Rubel picked up the important wicket of Markram. The opener was batting on 143 and well set. The field was set for a short ball and Markram was expecting a bouncer from Rubel. But Rubel bowled a brilliant in-swinging yorker that knocked out the middle stump and Markram was on his way. It was a brilliant ball from Rubel in the fourth ball of the 59th over. Off- and leg-stump were still standing while the middle was lying on the ground a few feet away. Such scene is always a brilliant feel for a fast bowler.